Wednesday, 13 June 2012

Empheris - A Tribute to Black Desires

EMPHERIS - A Tribute to Black Desires (NECROPULSAR - CD 2007)

If you take a look at the impressive amount of
releases, which the discography of Empheris holds, then you may expect a wide
variety of different recordings there – from demos, splits, EPs, full length
albums, compilations… whatever you think of. But at the same time it is quite
certain that the quality will also range – from good or very good to those more
mediocre or even uninteresting releases. This compilation, titled “A Tribute to
Black Desires”, belongs to the less interesting Empheris releases, at least in
my opinion. The initial idea for it was to exhume, rearrange and re-record some
old songs, which were composed by the band called Eris, all written between
1995-97. And Eris was a band, which Empherion, one of Empheris leaders, played
in. This old band recorded only one or two demos and then split up somewhere around
1997 and Empheris is actually a continuation of it, when Empherion gathered
some new musicians in 2003, but decided to take a different moniker (which was
a good decision, as Eris is a name of the brand of some women cosmetics, so it
would be very funny to have a black metal band with such moniker hehe). But
more about the Eris history and all the reasons for the release of this
compilation will be revealed to you, when you read what Empherion has written
in the booklet. I’ve never actually heard any of the old Eris materials, so I
didn’t really know what to expect from “A Tribute to Black Desires”, but was
quite curious about it as well.

There are five old Eris songs, which Empheris
arranged and re-recorded. I must admit that even re-recorded, they still sound
incredibly old school and archaic, and not many bands really play something
like this nowadays, you cannothear such
riffs so often. They’re like very simple, basic thrash metal riffs, with some
Accept influences plus more shrieking, harsh vocals... Pure regression and
archaism – this is what this material is like, if you want to know. All songs’
structures are very simple, they (songs) do not demand more than just head
banging and beer bath from you, delivering also some more catchy and memorable
choruses, in case if you would like to scream some words with Adrian. Hmm, but
you know what? Despite the relatively good production and somehow energetic
feeling of those songs, I cannot say I liked them much. Definitely I like the new
Empheris material more, because it’s more aggressive, harsher, more relentless,
faster and more black / thrash metal. I guess it’s OK to listen to “A Tribute
to Black Desires” from time to time and also to have a copy of this
compilation, just for collecting purpose, but if this CD was the thing, with
which you would like to start your journey through Empheris discography, then I
advise you to pick up something else.

“A Tribute to Black Desires” offers also few
covers, and so there’s really cool Sodom cover, “Agent Orange”!!!!!!!!!!! Great
song, well performed and it’s definitely the best thing on the whole
compilation. Then there’s a cover of a band called The Abyss – an old side
project of Hypocrisy guys. I haven’t listened to the original for years, so I
hardly recognised that it’s them, but anyway Empheris recorded their version of
“Marutukku”. Finally there’s a song from a band called Valpurgia, which was an
old black metal band, in which Adrian, Empheris’ vocalist played in the 90’s. Just
like with Eris, I don’t know this band’s original material, but the song “Last
Journey” sounds as archaic and primitive as Eris, but maybe more melodic and
harmonious. Finally “A Tribute to Black Desires” is closed with Morbid Angel’s
“Desolate Ways”… This is of course a beautiful acoustic piece from “Blessed are
the Sick” masterpiece. And that’s about everything that I have to say about “A
Tribute to Black Desires”… A decent collection of songs, but definitely not the
best release in the whole Empheris discography.

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What is this blog for...?

This blog is first and foremost to remind the UG metal community my work on PANZERFAUST zine, so I'll try to exhume my old interviews and reviews from that zine.

Blog is also an opportunity for me to share my thoughts on new releases, new bands... I'll publish here new reviews or interviews I've written recently, just for the pleasure of doing so and getting these things out of my mind, as I still enjoy writing about the music I love and live.Finally I'll be sharing here any others things I find interesting...